After months of waiting and speculation, we are now just a matter of days away from the new Escape From Tarkov wipe and the big 0.15 patch. But one change that is coming in that patch has me worried, so much so that I’m considering ditching PvP for a PvE play through this wipe.
If you’ve kept up with the reveal of the new patch or the speculation leading up to the wipe, which is set to launch on August 20, you will have likely heard about the new boss, Partisan, who will hunt down Tarkov players that camp for extended periods of time. However, one feature that he seems to be bringing with him has proven controversial.
In the image that revealed him, Partisan can be seen holding a grenade with a large wire attached to it. This sent speculation wild that the long promised trip wire traps would be added this wipe, and once we saw the trailer for the patch it was confirmed that trip wire grenades will be added to the game, and they look pretty deadly. In the trailer for the new Tarkov wipe, one trip wire takes out two PMCs instantly, and it looks like if you don’t notice them you aren’t going to be surviving for too long as a grenade will detonate immediately right next to you.
This has got me somewhat concerned about how this feature could work in PvP. Assuming this feature isn’t just limited to Partisan and players can also lay traps like this, I can see the amount of incredibly annoying deaths increasing a lot. On maps such as Reserve or Streets where there are some small corridors or some unusual geometry, I can see Tarkov players finding spots that make the trip wires almost invisible, and that is going to suck to play against.
If you feel like you genuinely had no change to notice the trip wire and disarm it, then it is going to be one of the cheapest deaths in all of Tarkov, especially as the trap layer could just hide in a cupboard and not have to put themselves in harms way at all, and given how frustrating Tarkov can be at the best of times, this might be the one feature to push me over the edge of finding it fun.
So, if the trip wires are implemented as expected and players do find locations to put them that makes it almost impossible to see, then I will likely move over to the PvE mode for this wipe. No matter how much they try, I doubt the AI will be able to place these as annoyingly as real players, which should make them more manageable.
I’ve not been tempted by PvE so far because the challenge of PvP is what I really love about Tarkov. I want it to be brutally hard, and good PvP fights will never be matched by AI. But, as the more annoying ways to die start to add up, from cheaters to invisible trip wires, I might be forced to make the switch to PvE just so I can continue to enjoy the game.
